The one that got away
by Mikiya
Summary: Mutant factions war with each other, while one girl, trying to stay out of the line of fire, takes refuge in Bayville. Unfortunately, she can't help but be drawn back into the battle, taking the X-men and Brotherhood with her!
1. Prologue

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Prologue- 

The night seemed to sweep in unnoticeably that evening in early September. The young girl, a new resident a Bayville, had barely noticed it darken herself. Not that it bothered her, she was a night dweller anyway. But what did bother her is that she was being followed. She knew the man, she knew his scent, though it was hard to get a definite lock on it in the hazy weather with out any breeze blowing towards her. But she knew his style, he was a stalker, it was his genetic impulse to follow and observe anything and everything closely be fore he made a move. But this night she was in no mood for his antics, whatever he wanted from her she was going to find out now. She turned down a smaller residential street, and continued to walk in the middle of the road for a while before she came to a sudden stop. Dropping her book bag down, for having baggage wouldn't put her in any advantage if she were going to have to defend herself, she walked up the street slowly, her eyes shifting from side to side as she searched out the perpetrator. 

"What do you want!" She yelled out into the darkness. She sniffed again but she couldn't catch any scent at all. Rhodie whipped back around to see him, standing where she had dropped her bag. A man of reasonable height with a lean, but muscular build stood, dangling Rhodie's book bag by its strap. 'Dante…' His usually fair colored skin appeared pale and his emerald green eyes, beady, underneath the neon street lamp.

"What have you got in this thing, bricks?" he said.

"Books." She replied. Dante chuckled.

"Quaint little town, I can see why the doctor choose to stash his little pet here." He sneered. Rhodie growled underneath her breath. Dante continued,

"But I hope you aren't as naïve as to think you really have sanctuary here. Genyx bit off more than they could chew when they created us and now they're trying to rein us all back in under their control. When Genyx is finished tying up lose ends with the rest of the strays, they'll come for you, and there's nothing that Decatur can do to convince them other wise, you'll live a slave or die a rebel like the rest of us." Young she was, Rhodie fully understood the perils that her kind was going through, but she wasn't in the mood for Dante's talk. 

"What do you want."

"Shelvie and Desha sent me to check up on you." he replied with a smirk. Rhodie didn't appreciate him using the cover of her older sisters to shoddily mask his ulterior motives.

"If they actually cared how I was doing, they'd come and see for them selves." She said growing increasingly annoyed, "I'll ask you one more time. What the hell do you want?"

"Only to offer you the opportunity of a lifetime."

"Another one?"

"More like the lead up to the final one." he replied. It often worked like this, one job led to another, which led to another. It was hard to get out of the crime loop once one of Lorenzo's men had pulled you into it. 

"I'm suppose to be in hiding, and going on a chain of grand thefts isn't exactly keeping a low profile now is it?" she replied.

"Hey, even rebellions need funding, and we need the right materials to beat them. And you have access to a free resource that even Genyx has to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to produce." he said.

Rhodie was starting to get annoyed; Dante always spoke in riddles. She wondered how a gangster like Lorenzo could've kept a fruitcake like him on for so long.

"And that is?" she said rolling her eyes.

"Recruits my dear, fresh talent, am I wrong to assume that the Xavier institute is a boarding house for young mutants?" he said.

"Now you guys want the X-men on your case?" she said flatly. 

"Come now Rhodie, with your charm and looks, you can turn anyone of those kids in any direction you want. Why not send one our way?" Rhodie sighed. Dante's very presence here put her life in danger. She wasn't masquerading as a sophomore in high school for nothing. She was supposed to be in hiding really. Rhodie had at first doubted Dr. Decatur's decision to send her to a city with a mutant institute, but he wasn't sure it was so safe to send her off on her own without any body like her around. She was to stay in Bayville and keep a low profile until everything died down. She wasn't to relate with any old contacts of hers. Which happened to be what she was doing right now. Rhodie walked towards Dante, stopping no more than three feet from him and took her book bag back from him. She backed away steadily, she wanted to get away from him but she didn't want to turn her back on him all the way. Dante crossed his arms over his chest. 

"Perhaps you'd be more willing to bargain if Lorenzo himself came to visit…" He said. A much more audible growl sounded from Rhodie, as her eyes flashed an unnatural yellow. From her reaction, Dante could see she took this as a challenge, and if he knew one thing about Rhodie, she always rose to meet any challenger. Dante opted to change his tune very quickly. 

"Ten grand, just for hooking us up with a good power for a one time job, and I'm sure Lorenzo will give enough money to the sap you send us to keep them from making any trouble." Hooking anything up with these gangsters was still a bad idea, but who could refuse ten thousand dollars? Dante smiled he could tell she was going to give in. "It's not like your sending a kid to their death or anything, they come down to the city, they meet up with 'Renzo they pull a job, they get some money, they go the fuck home. How can anyone resist something as easy as that?" he said. 

"I don't want any more of you guys popping in for social calls, after I get my money." She replied.

"Get us something good then, highly destructive, but not too traceable so everybody knows who did it," He said, "and I promise you won't see any of us again 'till you come looking."

"I'll see what I can do." She said as she turned around and continued on her path home.

He lay stretched out on the bleachers, watching the activities in the playing fields below. Or at least he had been watching the field. Lance looked the girl coming towards him up and down with his dark eyes. Her black, wavy hair rested a little below her shoulders, she had a round nose and full lips, and her eyes were a honey brown that sparkled in the sunlight. She looked like one of those girls from a rap music video with her tan high knee boots and slightly darker tan skirt with splits on either side up to her thighs she wore. She had on a half shirt tank top with only one strap on one shoulder and a diamond studded border. Though she wasn't preppy, but she was hot, which lead Lance to wonder what she would want with someone as totally trashed in this school as he was. He watched her pull out her cigarette the shuffle around her small fashionable purse for what he assumed something to light it with. He had never been much of a smoker himself besides joining in with other smokers around the school grounds from time to time if someone would give him one, but he carried a lighter around just the same. The girl he was watching had been searching around in her purse for a while but her efforts appeared to be in vain. Deciding not to waste what had to be a god given opportunity to talk to an attractive girl, he pulled out his manners from where ever they were hibernating and went up to her. 

Rhodie looked up to see Lance approaching her, lighter in hand. Being a damsel in need of a light was a little cliché but it worked.

"Need a light, uh… Rhodie is it?" Offered Lance.

She smiled smugly before replying, 

"Yeah."

Rhodie sat half listening to Lance describe the social structure of the school, and half pondering her own thoughts. 

"So this is the school loser?" Thought Rhodie. In her minds eye they couldn't have chosen a handsomer boy to be an outcast, with his tan skin, light hair, dark eyes and well build. Though his friends didn't exactly have the looks, except for maybe the silver haired one, she was sure that with a little polishing… But she was waiting. He had yet to mention anything to her about him being a mutant, but she was sure he was and a mutant with awesome powers at that. Because of her keen insight and intuition it hadn't taken her long to pick out who the abnormal ones in the school were, but this kid had stood out like a sore thumb. He didn't seem to be to so secretive of his powers, unlike the other kids who desperately tried to hide the fact that they were mutants, but she could tell he wasn't going to tell her what she wanted to know without a little nudge.

"You've been in there?" she had interrupted his dialogue about who knows what, but she had been sure she had heard him mention something of relevance to her. 

"Wha?" said Lance.

"Professor Xavier's institute." She replied. Lance looked at her, a hint of surprise shown on his face. She couldn't be…a mutant? He figured, there's no way a normal girl as gorgeous as her would come and talk a guy like him for no reason at all. Well… maybe, he did consider himself to be a pretty sexy guy after all. Lance finally responded, "Yeah, I joined up with them a while back, but I didn't stay."

"Why not?" she asked.

"Guess it just wasn't for me." He replied, "Don't tell me your another one of Xavier's recruits?"

"No, I'm not, I have enough trouble with mutant organizations as is, I don't need to go joining any more." She said taking in another breath of smoke.

"Really? Why is that?" he asked. 

She smiled, 

"I'll tell you my story, if you tell me yours."

"But I asked first." He said. 

"What's the matter, where your powers to corny for them to keep you on?" Rhodie teased.

"You kidding? Watch this!" said Lance. The ground began to rumble as a pathway of up turned land began to form, as if a giant rabbit was digging a tunnel underneath it, speedily pushing it's way to the target, a nearby tree, which was violently pushed up partially from the ground. Lance smirked. That had been almost too easy to do, not like when he had first started out. He didn't even have to stamp his foot or move in any obvious manner to do it. He looked back over at Rhodie, feeling thoroughly pleased with himself for the show he had just put on.

"Not bad, if you can sink actual built structures, rather than just the wood they're made out of." 

"Oh I can take out this whole high school, and then some, trust me on that."

"Then why don't you?" she said.

Lance lowered his eyes as he muttered, "One word: X-men." Rhodie looked at him inquisitively. "I'm not kidding!" He said. "They got this one wolf-dude up there-"

"Wolverine," 

"Uh, yeah, you know him?"

"Not personally, but I think my one sisters know him…personally."

"O…Kay…then." Said Lance, shuddering at the idea. "That's something I could have gone with out hearing today…"

"Well you're a little, how should I put this, 'rugged', yourself." Said Rhodie to Lance. 

"Well pardon me! But unlike those geeks at the institute livin' in a mansion, with allowances and crap, my buddies and I are out here on our own without nobody else supportin' us! And without jobs too, were broke most of the time."

Young, stupid and strapped for cash. 'It can't get any better than this.' 

"Yeah, I could tell." She said, "You need money, I can hook you up with a very good employer."

'So this is what it's about, recruiting new mutants to their group.' He thought. Noticing the doubtful look on his face she assured him.

"Look, I know a guy who'd be more than willing to let you on and pay you well up in the thousands. All you have to do is give him a little taste of your powers and he'll find something for you to do. And you don't have to join up with him permanently or nothing, you just do the job, get the money and get out." Lance eyed her cynically.

"He pays up in the thousands you say?" he said to her. 

"You say you'd have no problem sinking a building even bigger than this entire high school?" she asked.

"Yeah, you bet." He replied, blowing a final puff of smoke out of his lungs before he put the cigarette out.

Rhodie looked him strait in they eye, 

"And the people inside the building with it?" 

There was a still pause in the conversation. He seemed for a moment at a loss of words, looking back into Rhodie's honey-brown eyes. He then snapped out of the lull. 'Fuck it.' 

"Yeah, I'd sink every last one of 'em." He replied. Rhodie smiled slyly, as she stood up to stretch, raising her arms far above her head, flicking her burnt out cigarette butt off into the distance. 

"Five, maybe ten grand." She said, looking back down on his relaxed form. Lance eyed the voluptuous curves of her body while she stretched. Suddenly, Rhodie felt the ground move harshly beneath her and she found herself stumbling into Lance's lap, and arms. While catching her he chuckled lightly. 

'I couldn't help myself.' Growling, she immediately shoved off Lance's arms from around her hand grasped his throat tightly. He choked on a gasp, while staring strait into Rhodie's transformed eyes, her fangs openly visible in her snarl.

"You won't try anything like that **ever**again, unless you want me to show you an example of _my_ powers!" She snapped at him, her sharp talons barely piercing the thin skin of his neck as she pulled her hand off of him violently. Her fierce transformation had been quite the shock to Lance, but once he had saw she wasn't going to hurt him, (at least this time she wasn't going to) he calmed down a little. Standing up she breathed in deeply. 

"Now you've got me all riled up!" she said yelling at him. But he figured he had learned his lesson, about this girl, 'I have to let her make the first move.' Lance smiled broadly, watching Rhodie try to calm herself down, to the point where her features didn't show so much, and she couldn't help but smirk back. 

Authors Note: Surgeon General says, **SMOKING'S BAD FOR YOU**. I really hate to promote of in my story, but it's there to more show the character of Rhodie, not to make it look like it's a cool thing that rebels do. Anyway Rhodie's a bad girl, she's there getting lance hooked up with mutant criminals and stuff, I don't want to give my plot away just yet, but don't follow her example she's bad news. 


	2. Night Riding

Chapter one: Night Riding

"Are you ready too go?" said Kurt; his shimmering white fangs made his mischievous smile all the more visible in the dark. 

"I'm ready if you ah." Said Rogue her southern accent particularly heavy when she didn't have to worry about others understanding. Between her southern dialect and Kurt's German accent she wondered how either of them understood each other at times. Kurt mounted the motorcycle as Rogue got on behind him securing her helmet on, then passing him his. 

"So vere will we ride tonight madam Marie?"

"Anywhere, jus make sure we go there really fast."

Rogue clung to him tightly as he started up the motorcycle and sped of into the night. Even if it was only because she was fully suited with gloves and a helmet, it felt good to be able to hold on to someone, and not have to worry about zapping the hell out of them. That was one of the reasons Kurt drove the motorcycle instead of her. Plus he was a really fun driver. He did stunts that Rogue herself would never have the courage to do, but he always seemed to have total control over what he was doing. To the average person it would seem that they were two very stupid teenagers driving around in high speeds on a motorcycle at night who if weren't severely punished for their actions would probably end up injured or killed. But to Rogue at least, their night riding had a symbolic meaning of their declaration of brother and sisterhood to each other. After Irene, Mystique had been a sort of mother figure to her (even if she wasn't a very nice one) and Mystique was also Kurt's biological mother. They saw it as enough to be related. Also Rogue trusted Kurt with her life every time she got on the motorcycle with him. Since trusting didn't come easily for her, it felt good to have someone to trust. For Kurt it seemed like he didn't have a worry in the world when he sped down the road with his sister riding in back. He felt kindred with Rogue and loved it the most when they stopped along the way to look at the view of the Bayville city at night and talk about whatever was bothering them. There was also an unshakable thrill that came with teleporting out of the house at one in the morning with Mr. Logan's motorcycle and riding around doing stupidly dangerous stunts on it. The stakes were high and they could only dream of not ever getting caught. Kurt just wished they could've dreamed a little longer. 

Logan had them all lined against the garage wall like suspects being brought in for identification. He walked up and down the line once grilling all of the guilty faces. 

"Now I've suspected someone's been messing around with my bike for a while, but now I have more going for me than faint smells and intuition." Most of the young X-men gave a readable start as Logan let out his massive razors pointing sharply to a ghastly scrape upon his vehicle. Kurt panicked inwardly, how could he have missed a mark that big? 

"It's bad enough that someone takes my bike out without my permission, but to then damage the goods in the process?" Logan yelled on.

Kurt retraced his thoughts over where he had ridden to figure out at what point he could've possibly made that scratch.

"I'll ask once, WHO TOOK MY BIKE OUT!" There was an uncomfortable silence about the room.

"I don't like to repeat myself." Said Logan as he crossed his arms turning his back to them.

Rogue looked at Kurt standing next to him as he began step forward, she moved slightly to join him but he motioned for her to stay back.

Kurt stepped forward, "It vas me, Mr. Logan." He said his eyes plastered to the floor. Logan gave an audible growl. 

"Newbies, you can leave." He said dismissing all the newly recruited X-men.

"Woo hoo!"

"Alright!"

The kids shuffled out of the garage leaving Jean, Scott, Evan, Kitty, Rogue and Kurt behind. Logan turned his attention back to Kurt.

"Just you huh?" said Logan. It was at that time that Rogue saw it fit to fess up.

"It was me to Mr. Logan. I was with him every time. And I was really the one who thought- " She was interrupted by Kurt.

"But I was the one driving the whole time, all she ever did really was come along for ze ride." He said, immediately defending her.

"Great," said Logan talking to himself more than to them, "we've got not one, but two kids riding around on _my_ bike at night all crazy like!"

"Logan has a point," said the professor entering the room, "It's most unaffordable and dangerous to be out on a motorcycle at night around here, especially for people such as yourselves. What if you were to get into an accident and were out someplace where you couldn't get medical help when you needed it? Or what if you were found and brought to a local hospital, what could happen to you then?" said Xavier looking Kurt strait in the eye. 'It's nice to see the professor has his priorities strait…' thought Rogue. The professor glanced slightly at her, leaving her to wonder if what she thought had gone undetected. Xavier sighed heavily.

"Well I've said all I can say to you I just really hope that in the future you all will think about your actions as well as the model you are setting for our newer recruits here." Said Xavier as he wheeled out. Logan took back the floor at this moment. 

"I mean it now, it's ok to enjoy yourself but you all know what's good fun from what's down right stupid." Logan turned to Kurt and Rogue.

"As for you two, I want you all coming strait home tomorrow, I don't care if it is a Friday. And blue, there's a jet that needs cleaning and a bucket with soap and water with your name on it in the hangar, get to it."

"Aww man," said Kurt as he headed towards the hangar. The others too went about their respectable ways.

"Enjoy the wash elf!" yelled Evan across the room, chuckling.

"Watch it spikes, or you'll be helping him." Came a reply from Logan. It was Kurt's turn to laugh now.

Rogue was left with Logan in the room by herself soon after. He looked at her, 'what'. 

"You don't want me to help fix the scratch or nothin?" she asked. Logan smirked and smudged off easily a part of what had looked like to be a pretty bad scratch. A look of shock came over Rogue's face.

"Yeah, yeah, I made the mark accidentally with some stuff I was working with this morning and used it as an opportunity to draw you guys out, but that's not the point. I mean do you really trust anyone enough to be on the back of a bike with them when they are racing around on thin country roads in the dark?" 

She looked Logan in the eye, 

"I trust Kurt." 

Logan smirked again,

"That's nice and all but would you do me a favor and find something to trust him in that I don't have to punish you for?"

Rogue smiled, "Oh, ok Logan."

Kitty watched Kurt as he scrubbed the Blackbird vigorously. Whether he was scrubbing so diligently to clean the Blackbird correctly and impress Logan into not punishing him further or out of frustration of being in trouble, she didn't know, but it was kind of amusing to watch him washing the Jet with all fours plus a tail. He glanced over at her and she smiled at him. Not a cruel or taunting smile, but a Kitty smile, a warm innocent inviting smile. Normally he would love that smile but now days it was more of a gut-wrenching reminder of what he could never have. 'Pretty Kitty' he thought wistfully, looking over once again to see that she was pouting now, probably because he hadn't returned her smile. He was determined not to. It was too painful now, knowing how much he cared for her and that she may never return his feelings in the same way. Did she know what she did to him every time she smiled at him, every time she even walked into the same room as him? Most likely the same thing she did to that Lance fellow. He couldn't believe they let him in, but like Scott had said, it was useless for the X-men and the Brotherhood to draw battle lines now. But Scott hadn't been that cordial to him while he was here either. None of them really had except maybe Kitty. Kurt at first tried to be, but when he realized that Lance's sole purpose for coming there was Kitty, something inside him became very hostile towards Lance. The kid didn't take X-men seriously anyway, always getting in fights with the others and getting in trouble. But it still hurt him to see Kitty sad when Lance left. Lance was gone now though, where, not even his friends knew. When Scott had asked, it didn't seem much like they cared either. Kitty, tiring of being ignored by Kurt, was starting to make her way towards the door. He couldn't resist any longer.

"Hey Katzchen, could you do me a favor and check to see if my name is written on that bucket of soap and water?" Said Kurt. Kitty deciding to humor him kneeled down and turned the bucket around inspecting it carefully.

"Nope, I'm afraid I don't see 'Kurt' written anywhere on here…Oh wait, now I see! _Reserved for Nightcrawler,_ like, right here!" she said. It was at that moment Kurt decided to renew his cloth, and with a flick of his tail he sent the soapy rag soaring into the bucket, splashing Kitty generously. 

"Kurt!" she squealed. Kurt bamfed over by her and the bucket, throwing the remaining washcloths into the water.

"I'm sorry Kitty, did I get you wet?" he said smirking mischievously. 

"You like, totally did you imp!" she said punching him playfully. But to her dismay, she seemed to feel the pain more than he did. Was it her, or had this kid seriously grown some muscle mass over the summer vacation? Kurt laughed as Kitty held her hand in pain. The ever-famous throat clearing sound of Logan let Kurt know he was having more fun than he was meant to.

"You better leave me to my chore before I get into more trouble, no?" said Kurt as he rung out the washcloths in the bucket.

"Yeah," replied Kitty watching him as he turned back towards the jet. "Hey Kurt, how come you like never took me on one of those night rides?" she asked. He halted in his steps for a slight moment, before continuing on as if she had said nothing. "Kurt?" she said inquisitively. She didn't quite understand the sudden change in his demeanor, had she said something wrong? Kurt stopped once as she called him. He didn't mean to be unfriendly, but her question had some how stricken up a small wave of emotions he was in no mood to contemplate at the moment. So he plastered on a smile and turned to her saying, 

"I didn't think a good girl like you'd go for breaking the rules like that."

The idea that people thought Kitty as a "good two shoes" really bugged her. "Just because I'm not suicidal and I don't go stealing Logan's motor bike riding around at night like a nut doesn't mean I'm a goody." she thought. Which reminds her, whatever happened to her favorite bad boy, Lance? He had come to school the first couple weeks or so, but after that he just vanished. The first week with out him, she tried not to think much of it. By the end of that week though, even some people around the institute had taken notice, some glad to be rid of him, others like the professor concerned about having such a trouble maker unaccounted for. Had he really dropped out of school like he had threatened to? Kitty would never admit it to anyone, but during the second week of his absence she'd actually went out of her way to look for him, sometimes in his more unsavory hangout spots. Still not finding him, she was reduced to her last and most dreaded option. Asking the Brother hood what happened to him. They didn't turn out to be as bad as she thought they would be. They were far worse. She had hardly managed to get her question out before they were yelling out insults at her and laughing like it was the funniest thing in the world. 

"Lets go guys, I think I'm allergic to cat dander." Said Fred getting up. 

"Yeah, I can see the dandruff rising off of her head." Piped in Pietro. Tabitha shoved past her. 

"Watch it X-geek!" And after they humiliated her in front of practically the whole school, they still didn't tell her where Lance was. Toad however had taken some sympathy to her cause and approached her later when they were alone to give her the information she desired. 

"Lance took off on some business yo. Said he was looking up some connections in the big city and he'd back four weeks max. But I don't see why it's any of your business Kit-Kat, no ones lost out more than we have. Man we depended on Lance for a lot of things, so if he does come home, the last thing we need is you sniffin' round him, so back the hell off him, fo' I get Fred to make you his personal butt cushion- again." 

So there it was. Lance was off conducting business in New York City while his friends were back in Bayville, broke. Kitty actually felt sorry for the brother hood, being so poor and all. She would have begun to think of ways she might help them, but the bell rang sending her thoughts to the lunch break that she was about to have. 

Ahh, lunch with Kurt and Evan, not exactly the most peaceful time of the day, but she had to admit there was never a dull moment with those two. "What are you two going on about now?" Asked Kitty as she placed her lunch down on the table. 

"We got paired up in our English class for our term projects." Said Kurt. "Oh really, who'd you get?" said Kitty. 

"Don Keebler." Said Evan dropping his head on the table in anguish. 

"And that's a bad thing?" said Kitty. 

"Are you kidding, that kid's denser then a brick!" said Kurt, sounding all too amused. 

"I don't think he's done one home work assignment in that class yet." 

"Well," said Kitty, "It's only one little project grade right? I mean there will be other ways to make it up if you don't do good, right?" 

"WRONG." They said in unison. 

"This project counts for over fifty percent of your grade this term!" said Kurt.

"Yeah, and unless I want to be taking English again next year, I can't fail this term!" said Evan.

"Wow." Said Kitty not knowing quite what else to say to the boys. They seemed to thrive on this kind of drama. "Well who were you paired with Kurt?" Both the boys looked at each other and chuckled, leaving Kitty to wonder if she even wanted to know what was so funny about her question. 

"I got paired up with Rhodie." Said Kurt. 

__

Rhodie? 

Kitty looked over across the lunchroom to where a group of what she considered to be scantily clad girls sat. The clique, or Rhodie's crew, as people often called them, consisted of four girls, two of them new to the high school. There was Rhodie, of course, then there was Viet, a Vietnamese girl with a bad attitude she'd claim anyplace, any time. She definitely didn't fit the mild, polite image of an Asian girl that others had put upon her and she was almost always on some type of warpath (usually against some innocent girl) to let the world know she couldn't be fucked with. 

Donya was an even-tempered freshman, with dark brown skin and even darker eyes. She wore her hair in extension braids and was mostly respected in the clique as the best dancer of them and an excellent choreographer. She was for the most part a decent girl, though under the influence of Rhodie that changed rapidly. 

Tatia, was a Puerto Rican girl with fair skin and curly black hair she kept back tight in a ponytail. She was shunned in the school somewhat for her flirtyness and tendency to be a boyfriend snatcher, but those were the qualities that Rhodie, however, found vital to the persona of her clique. 

Looking over her high school career so far, Rhodie thought she was doing pretty well considering she'd never been in any type of school setting in her life. She wasn't into the whole preppy thing that this school seemed to be hooked on, but she did have a clique of stylish, sexy, sophisticated girls to call her own. They had an activity which they ruled- hip-hop dance, and a following of boys that fancied themselves as thugs- though they were really just wannabes who tried a little too hard to act black. Rhodie's schoolwork however, hadn't come as easily to her. Though she was, due to her expert tutoring from a crazed scientist, exceptionally smart, the common drudgery of staying awake in classes and doing assignments on time didn't really appeal to her. But grades didn't matter in high school right? From what she had seen on television shows, all that really mattered in school was that you were pretty and popular. 

"What is _she_ looking at?" said Viet. 

"Who?" said Donya.

"Kitty." Replied Viet. She couldn't stand that girl.

"_Who_?" asked Donya again.

"That girl with the brown hair sitting over there with the foreign kid!"

"You mean Kurt?" Said Rhodie.

"You know him Rhodie?" asked Tatia.

"Yeah, he's my partner for some term project I got in English." She replied.

"He's in my math class, I think the Ms. Boen always calls on him because he has a cute accent." Said Tatia.

"Who's the black kid sitting with them?" asked Donya.

"Oh, that's Evan Daniels, I had him in a couple of my classes last year." Said Tatia.

"Well he seriously needs to get his hair braided." Said Donya commenting on his Afro.

"You should have seen him last year," Said Viet, " he had this blonde hair-do with this V-shaped cut in the back of his head, I'm glad he decided to just grow his hair out."

"Yeah, last years he was all punk rock, now this year he be wearin' Fubu jeans and Avirex jackets, like he's trying to be gangsta or something." Said Tatia.

"I could help him out by braiding his hair for him." Said Donya.

"You can corn-row?" Asked Tatia, "It looks hard to do." 

Donya replied, "Naw, it's not, It's kinda like braiding, but you-"

"What about the girl that keeps lookin' at people?" interrupted Viet, "I can't stand that biatch!" 

"Why you always gotta be startin something with people you don't even know?" said Donya.

"Girl, I've hated that chick since last year, don't play!"

"Forget Kitty, don't nobody like her anyway, 'cept for that girl with the bad make up and the bleached out streak in her hair." Said Tatia.

"She's been rocking that same two-cent gothic look since last year!" said Viet.

"On doggs?" said Rhodie.

"On doggs yo!"

"That whole group of kids from 'the institute' are wack." Said Viet.

"Don't hate," said Donya, "I think Afro-boy over there's kinda cute."

"His name is Evan. Don't you know anybody?" said Viet

"Damn girl, gimme a break! I ain't even been in this school two months!" she yelled back.

"Yeah, give the freshman a break."

"Don't be pullin rank on me!" said Donya in reply to Tatia's 'freshman' comment. 

"Don't be givin me no attitude!" Tatia snapped back. The bell then sounded, ending their lunch period.

"This lunch ends too fuckin soon, dog." Complained Viet as they rose from their seats. "You coming to the mall with us Rhodie, or do you have to meet with your little Dutch boy after school?" 

"Kurt is German you dumb-ass, and I'm going, he can't stay after school today anyway."

"Okay then girl! Why you getting all defensive over him?" said Viet. Rhodie rolled her eyes and headed her separate way to her class.

More Blab: Yeah, I know Kurt is suppose to have a girl friend- that Amanda chick- but I didn't feel like working her into the story, so for now, Kurt is hopelessly in love with Kitty…for now. 


End file.
